Qik Archive

Live video streaming service Qik has announced that they have cracked the iPhone 3G and you can now record live video on your iPhone. This will only work on jailbroken iPhone devices – that means if you are a good little boy or girl, this won’t work for you.

Back in June, Qik announced live iPhone video streaming support for the first generation iPhone. We were first to report on competitor Flixwagon launching live iPhone video streaming support earlier that day.

Here’s Michael at Qik explaining how the new video streaming support works:

Of course there’s also that little issue of iPhone 3G battery life to deal with.

This afternoon we were the first to announce that Flixwagon had cracked the iPhone and was able to run live video streaming through unlocked iPhones. Not to be outdone, the team at Qik have announced this afternoon that they too have cracked the iPhone and will be able to do live video streaming. Qik sent their iPhone demo video to Mashable (we don’t exist apparently!) and I’ve embedded it below as well.

We are setting up for some hot summer battles between Qik and Flixwagon – since both do basically the same thing, it will be the "surroundings" that make the difference. Who has the better player? Who has the better community?

Here’s their demo video:

Mobile photo and video are game changers for individuals and news organizations. As more mobile devices (and carriers) are supported, this market is going to skyrocket. Here are 10 apps that are in the mobile photo and video space. Some are well known and some might be new to you, in any event, give them all a try! And as always add your own faves in the comments.

Flixwagon

The Flixwagon app allows you to stream video live online. Their player is the best currently and Flixwagon recently worked with MTV on their Choose or Lose campaign by having reporters all over the country streaming in live video using a mobile handset. Currently Flixwagon works mainly with Nokia handsets but also has some support via a Java client. Flixwagon is also partnering with a variety of conferences to get live streaming from conference attendees. They most recently had many mobile devices at SXSW. (our Flixwagon coverage)

Qik

Qik (pronounced Quick) is probably the most buzzed live video app currently on the market. Videoblogger Robert Scoble and SEO Jason Calacanis are heavy users of the app. If you have a Nokia mobile that is supported, you can stream live video onto the Web using the Qik app. Created videos are also stored for later viewing. Justin.tv is a Qik partner. (our Qik coverage)

Kyte

Why do I like Kyte? Simple, it works with my mobile. I can shoot a video, and then email it into Kyte and it appears in moments. When I upload the same video to YouTube it always gives me an error. While on my device it’s not live, it’s as close to live as possible. There is a live version of the app as well, again for Nokia devices. Kyte can also create shows based on photos as well. Nokia is actually an investor in Kyte. (our Kyte coverage)

JuiceCaster

JuiceCaster allows you to easily upload videos and pictures from your mobile to your JuiceCaster account along with a player for your blog and embed options into Facebook and MySpace. Most of the video I checked out was very, very grainy (a dog looked like a sheep) but the photos look better. JuiceCaster also allows you watch videos on your mobile.

Movino

Movino can help you setup live mobile video streaming onto your blog or Web site. It appears to support 3G and WiFi and a variety of handsets. If you use the Java client, there is no sound. What makes Movino different is that it’s all open source so you can grab the code and edit where needed. Movino was originally developed as a course project at Abo Akademi University. The developers note that the course has completed and future development may be limited.

mywaves

mywaves is a video content site. You can select from thousands of videos and send them directly to your mobile for later viewing. You can setup an auto channel which will send the videos to your mobile when they match your criteria. In their gallery it seems most people want videos sent to them of women in bikinis and lingerie.

GoTV

Want to watch TV on your mobile? GoTV offers about 10 channels of a variety of TV genres. The company is based in California and most of the content is originally produced.

ITookThisOnMyPhone

This service with the very long name lets you create online photo galleries based on the pictures you take on your mobile. Using the ITookThisOnMyPhone app, images are automatically uploaded to the site and after permissions are applied, the images are available for viewing. The service currently works on Blackberry and Windows Mobile.

Phoja

Phoja helps you find answers to your questions using photos. If you take a photo of something that you need help identifying (say a shirt someone is wearing, you want to know the designer), the Phoja community will help identify the product in the photo. They define the service as a “social photo discussion” and there’s a Digg ratings model which pushes popular photos to the frontpage.

Radar

You take a photo, upload it to Radar, it’s sent immediately to your friends and family and they can comment on it and the comments are sent back to you. It looks like photos are sent to your friends computers not their mobile devices. They have also partnered with Big Brother so you can watch video from inside the Big Brother house.

At the core of Seesmic is a threaded discussion forum using video. One person starts a thread, others follow, all using video. I’ve written about Seesmic several times before including an initial demo video.

Earlier this week Mashable installed a new plugin from Viddler that allows site visitors to comment on articles using video. In 24 hours I’ve watched about 30 video comments.

Why do I believe the combination of blog/cms is stronger than Seesmic? Because it allows the content publisher and his or her audience to interact, each in their own preferred medium. I may prefer to start in text, John wants to reply with video, Mary with audio, Rachel with text. Together we are forming a combined discussion that doesn’t force us into one medium, be it text (currently for most blogs) or video (as Seesmic does).

To make this model perfect, we need three things. Audio recording capabilities, mobile commenting and video/audio transcription. The transcription is important because if users will contribute in their preferred method, they should be able to consume in as many ways as possible. These new input and ouput options could bring real innovation to the blog space which has set relatively still for a couple of years.

And how will the live video services (Qik/Flixwagon) be able to play in this new blog realm? I believe Seesmic is working on live video as well.

Perhaps Seesmic could offer a plugin similar to what Viddler is offering to enhance their current video offering. Viddler has a variety of innovative features but lacks the YouTube buzz and take rate. If they could figure out how to bundle the video commenting plugin into a variety of blog and CMS platforms, it could help elevate and provide a strong distribution model for Viddler.

What’s your take? Are video comments the future? Do you prefer the Seesmic video threading to the traditional blog setup?

After my post about Kyte yesterday, the team asked me to swing by their booth. Let me just say that what they showed me was impressive. They showed me their 2-minute full Facebook application along with the one-minute embed option. The system works with mobile phones, webcams, and saved videos. We were able to take my mobile phone, create a video, email it to Kyte and it was online immediately in my channel. The live features work mainly with the Nokia N95 (Nokia is an investor in Kyte).

With all of the new live video services hitting the airwaves recently, I asked co-founder Daniel Graf about the differences between Kyte and Seesmic, Qik and Flixwagon. Here’s his video response:

This afternoon I was a panel member discussing privacy at the Politics Online Conference in Washington D.C.  I will have a full recap of the panel along with some other thoughts on privacy. If you are interested in the meantime in checking out the full panel discussion, Mashable Director Adam Hirsch captured it on Qik and I’ve embedded it below. For some reason it starts out on a slant but corrects itself early into the movie. Enjoy!

A bunch of people have asked me if I have any Qik invites and I am happy to say that I have some invites now for you awesome CN readers! Qik is a mobile streaming video service that uses your mobile device to stream. It’s pretty cool and heck, if Robert Scoble thinks its great then you know it’s worth something!

I don’t have a mobile device capable of doing anything but making phone calls so I will rely on ya’all for feedback. If you test out the service and would like to write a review, send in a note to us. And if you start streaming, post a comment so we can check you out!

If you would like an invite, go to www.qik.com/sign_up and then send an email to support@qik.com indicating that you are a CenterNetworks reader and the Qik team will approve your request.